How can I save on my monthly Water and Power bill ? What are some of your tips which have saved you $$$?
(may be broke/outdated!)
How can I save on my monthly Water and Power bill ? What are some of your tips which have saved you $$$?
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7 Responses
…turn the “switch off” !
1. Unplug everything that you don’t use a lot. Many things consume electricity even when they are “turned off”. Battery chargers, ac to dc converters, anything with an internal clock, and anything with a remote control are examples of this.
2. Adjust the thermostat up a few degrees in the summer and down a few degrees in the winter.
3. Insulate your hot water tank. The payback period is usually less than one year.
4. Turn down your water heater’s thermostat. Set it to around 120 degrees farenheit.
5. As your light bulbs burn out, replace them with compact flourescent bulbs.
6. Wash clothes in cold water.
7. Line dry clothes instead of using a clothes dryer.
8. Enable your computer’s power saving mode.
Just be aware of all the power and water you use and try to reduce it.
Take shorter showers. Maybe replace the shower head with a water-saving one. Turn off lights you don’t _really_ need. Remove bulbs that are unnecessary in fixtures that have many bulbs, such as the ones above the bathroom mirror in a bathroom you don’t use for vanity. Lower your water heater setting, lower your home heater and raise the AC temperature settings. Turn off your computer when you’re not using it – even if it’s a laptop. Get those surge protectors that shut off the outlets when the device plugged into the main outlet is turned off.
1. set your air-conditioning or heater’s timer (if any).
2. unplug appliances that are not in use except for your refrigerator. television sets with sensors (the red or blue dot light when you’re tv is on standby mode) also consumes electricity. unplug it when you are not using the tv.
3. keep the refrigerator closed.
4. do not switch your lights on and off many times. switching on a light many times uses more electricity.
Have a look at the energy saving trusts top 10 tips!
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/What-can-I-do-today/Getting-started
and for water saving info check out http://www.waterwise.org.uk
It is about awareness. Learn how much energy you are using and how you are using it. Many cities or utilities have free energy audits, often they will come to your home and show you ways you can reduce your energy usage.
Help your heater by keeping the warm air in, weather strip and caulk doors and windows, seal off vents and other large gaps. Use heavy drapes over windows. Adjust your thermostat a few degrees, there is nothing wrong with wearing a sweater inside. A programmable thermostat can save money and make the home more comfortable. They cost about $50. Many people crank the heat up while they are getting ready in the morning only to leave the house after it gets warm.
Replace appliances with energy efficient models when you need new ones. Even older ones can be used more efficiently, only wash full loads, line dry when possible, don’t over dry clothes and make sure the vent is clean. You can wash fewer clothes by wearing things more than once, I wear my jeans a few times before they hit the hamper. Hanging up clothes that were worn for a brief time or only tried on will stop clean clothes from getting mixed in with the dirty.
If you are replacing lighting look for fixtures with fewer bulbs, and if you hate the look of CFL’s look for fixtures that will hide them. There are a wide range of CFL’s with various strengths and colors of light, try a few to see what works best in various rooms. Replace only the bulbs that are used frequently.
Standby energy can be up to 15% of your bill. Not all appliances use energy when they are turned off, but most electronics do as well as anything with a light or clock. Many chargers use energy even when nothing is attached. I use a power strip with a switch for my tv, dvd and game system and for my desktop, speakers and monitor. After I turn things off I flip the switch and stop using standby energy. I also unplug chargers and ipod docking stations when not in use.
Turn the thermostat on your water heater down to 120 degrees, put an insulated blanket on the tank.
To conserve water, check for leaks and repair them. Put several drops of food color into the tank of your toilet, wait about 30 minutes, if there is color in the bowl you have a leak. Take shorter showers, wash your hair less frequently, that saves water, the energy to heat it and style it. When you do wash it, turn off the water while you are lathering.
In the kitchen don’t wait for hot water before rinsing dishes. When rinsing dishes going into the dishwasher I plug the sink and soak items that the food doesn’t just wipe off.
Hope this helps.
The majority of the energy use in a residence is for heating/air-conditioning and hot water. It’s a good idea to change out the frequently used lightbulbs with CFL’s but the actual savings is very small per household. The cumulative savings for the entire country is very large so promoting CFL’s benefits us as a whole but not much individually. Focus on insulating your hot water heater with a hot water heater insulation blanket and on weather stripping. You may want to strategically plant some trees or bushes to provide shade for your air-conditioner and for your house. Make sure you have a programmable thermostat and try to set it as high as you can bear for the summer months and as low as you can bear for the winter months. A thermostat that will switch automatically from air-conditioning to heat and vice versa would be good too. Usually, air-conditioning will be the big cost because electricity is expensive per unit of energy while natural gas is basically subsidized by our demand for oil and gas. Monitor your energy usage and costs, plot ratios of energy use and costs versus cooling days and ratios of costs per unit of energy used. You’ll find that they actually apply a fudge factor to increase the costs of electricity over the winter months when prices are low due to a lack of demand. There’s a lot of little surprises like that. Shop for energy whenever you can, even if you have a 12 month contract, shop so that you’ll know how well the alternatives would’ve worked and hence be able to make a better decision when the 12 months is up. Depending on usage, you may be better off with plans that track the actual energy costs rather than the ones that guarantee you a set rate since those rates are set by someone whose main objective is to make money from you not to give you the best possible deal. Of course, if you allow your bill to closely follow the market then you need to set money aside during the months that you don’t have high bills for the months that you do.